Neil deGrasse Tyson said this type of person would be his ideal TV guest

Famed astrophysicist and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson
went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Thursday night to chat
about closet geekiness and searching for life elsewhere in the
Solar System.

When Colbert asked Tyson who his ideal guest on his National
Geographic TV show StarTalk
would be, Tyson said:

"My perfect guest is someone who you would have had no
idea had a tender geek underbelly."

Tyson illustrated his point with a stroking gesture that Colbert
immediately lampooned him for. "That's too tender!" he said.

For example, this season Tyson had David Crosby, founder of the
band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, on the show, and found out
the singer and guitarist was an avid science fiction fan when he
was younger.

Turns out, Colbert was too. "I read a lot of [Carl] Sagan when I
was young," he said.

"Follow the water is the mantra of NASA," Tyson said and
continued that wherever there's water on Earth, we find life.

Tyson cautioned that just because there's water on Mars, it
shouldn't bias us toward thinking there's life. But why not look
for it? he said.

Europa, a moon of Jupiter with an icy, subsurface ocean, is
another place Tyson said we might find life. According to Tyson,
the gravity on Jupiter is stressing the shape of the moon, which
may generate enough heat to melt ice. And Europa's had
millions of years for life to develop.

"I want to go ice fishing on Europa — see what swims up and licks
the camera," Tyson said.

If we found life on Europa, we'd have to call them Europeans,
Tyson added.